Synagogue Overview

A picture of the Talmudic/Byzantine Synagogue of Hammat Tiberias.  It dates to the 4th-5th centuries.

This view is looking southwest at the layout of the synagogue.  It is basically a square room (50 x 42 feet) divided into four by three rows of columns—three in each row.  To the right, and above the center of the image is the main room with a zodiac and Torah shrine mosaic.  This side of it is a narrow aisle and on the lower left is an additional room.  The fourth aisle is in the upper right, under the modern platform with white chairs on it.

In the upper left is a basalt wall and behind it, from left to right, was a room and a platform on which probably stood a wooden check inside of which the synagogue scrolls were kept—a modern engraved piece of clear plexiglass represents where this "ark" would have stood.